I also relived the mastery, and mystery, of the great Mayan civilization. I hiked hidden paths, enjoyed gentle canoe paddles and explored the jungle, rain forests and rivers that encompass inland Belize.

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The town lies in a fertile valley nestled among rolling, tree-clad hills and some of the highest mountains in Maine. Small lakes, ponds and meandering rivers, dot the landscape. The stretch of the Androscoggin that runs past Bethel offers good angling for brown and rainbow trout.

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If mention of Austria conjures up images of tiny villages of flower-bedecked chalets, cows and sheep grazing on hillsides so steep you wonder how they can stand, and people who cling proudly to their colorful traditions, you’re probably picturing the Tyrol.

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Following a bountiful breakfast of dim sum, my wife Fyllis and I strolled along lanes lined by shops selling merchandise both familiar and unknown to us. Some stores displayed unrecognizable animal body parts, others herbal remedies said to heal a hospital full of ills.

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By Victor Block MADISON COUNTY, VA — The intersection of two narrow roads that is the closest thing to the center of Syria, Virginia— population about 370 — is the site of the Syria Mercantile Company. It was there that my recent journey into the countryside, as well as the past, began. Three men rocked […]

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The setting resembled a stunning picture postcard come to life. Soaring, snow-capped mountains provided a backdrop for green-clad terraces carved out of steep hillsides. In fields below, men and women wearing a rainbow of colorful clothing bent low to pick golden shoots and tie them into huge bundles, which they carried to a rickety wooden […]

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